Alabama's fine educational system, from primary and secondary school through college or university to graduate or professional school, can serve you or your minor student well. However, Alabama schools, like schools in other states, have many strict rules. Students must meet rigorous academic standards or face suspension and dismissal. Students must also conform their academic practices to increasingly sophisticated and demanding academic norms. Alabama schools also have strict conduct codes governing personal and interpersonal behavior. Violating any of these rules can result in swift suspension, expulsion, or other discipline, crippling academic and life goals. Alabama schools also owe their students certain fundamental rights and protections.
If you or your minor student face a significant obstacle to successfully completing an Alabama education at any level from K-12 through higher education, retain the Lento Law Firm's premier Education Law Team to enforce your education law rights. We are available in the public and private K-12 schools of Huntsville, Montgomery, Birmingham, Mobile, Tuscaloosa, Hoover, Auburn, Dothan, Madison, Decatur, Florence, Prattville, and other local school districts across the state. Our skilled and experienced attorneys can also represent students at the University of Alabama, Auburn University, Samford University, the University of South Alabama, Oakwood University, Huntingdon College, Tuskegee University, Spring Hill College, and other Alabama colleges and universities. Call 888.535.3686 or use our contact form now for the highly qualified attorney representation you or your minor student need for the best possible result.
Common Alabama Education Rights and Claims
Many federal and Alabama state education laws, rules, and regulations promise you or your minor student clear protection and enforceable rights, covering all kinds of academic and personal interests. Our Education Law Team attorneys can help you or your minor student enforce those rights to address, prevent, or correct academic progress suspension or dismissal, suspension or dismissal on misconduct charges, and failures of Alabama school officials to afford you or your minor student equal disability rights, non-discrimination rights, and civil rights. Let us help you with any of the following issues and other similar Alabama school issues.
Alabama School Disability Accommodations
Students with physical, mental, or other educational impairments and disabilities can face significant issues gaining access to Alabama school facilities and programs. Our attorneys can enforce Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) rights to address and correct those access issues. The ADA's Title II codified at 42 USC §12131, requires Alabama public schools from K-12 through higher education to reasonably accommodate students with qualifying disabilities. The ADA's Title III, found at 42 USC §12182, requires Alabama's private schools to offer the same reasonable accommodations. The ADA can apply whether a student's issue involves wheelchair access to buildings, rooms, or other facilities or visual, hearing, and other impairments requiring remedial equipment and services, including digital accessibility.
Your Alabama school will offer our attorneys administrative procedures to pursue and enforce your ADA rights. The Tarrant City Schools, for example, employs an ADA Compliance Director to carry out the district's ADA Compliance Policy. The University of Alabama, for another prominent example, staffs an Office of Disability Services to carry out the school's ADA Grievance Procedure. Issues with schools refusing disability accommodations can cause severe educational harm. Don't let that happen to you or your minor student. Get the help of our highly qualified attorneys.
Alabama Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) & 504 Plans
Your minor student may also be due special education services at your student's Alabama K-12 public school program. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), together with Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, requires Alabama's K 12 public schools to ensure a free appropriate public education (FAPE) to students with qualifying disabilities from ages 3 to 21 if those schools are to receive the available substantial federal special education funding. The Alabama State Department of Education maintains a Special Education Services Division to ensure that the state's K-12 public schools meet IDEA law special education requirements. Your minor student's Alabama K-12 school must provide an individualized education program (IEP) or similar Section 504 plan to any student the school identifies with a qualifying disability condition. School officials must refer your disabled student to an appropriate diagnostician at school expense and adopt an appropriate IEP based on the professional recommendation. You also have the right to participate in IEP team meetings and decisions.
Let us help you enforce your Alabama K-12 student's IDEA law and Section 504 rights. We can help you gain the referral and diagnosis, advocate for a better IEP or Section 504 plan, ensure implementation of the plan, and challenge inadequate plans through district and state agency appeals. Our attorneys are available to advocate for your student's special education services in the Mobile County Public Schools, Jefferson County Schools, Baldwin County Schools, Sponsored School District, Montgomery County Schools, Huntsville City Schools, Birmingham City Schools, Shelby County Schools, Madison County Schools, Tuscaloosa County Schools, Limestone County Schools, Hoover City Schools, Madison City Schools, Elmore County Schools, or any other Alabama school district.
Alabama School Discipline & Expulsions
Alabama school suspension or expulsion and transfer to an Alabama alternative disciplinary school based on misconduct allegations may instead be the issue that you or your minor student face. Alabama schools, like schools in other states, adopt lengthy student conduct codes governing many facets of student behavior. The University of Alabama's Code of Student Conduct, for instance, includes a long list of offenses against persons, property, the university community, or the university's conduct procedures, and disruptive offenses, any of which may lead to school suspension or expulsion. The Student Code of Conduct for the Birmingham Public Schools likewise includes a long list of statutory offenses under the state's school code, threatening or abusive behaviors, and other behavioral and property violations that could lead to school suspension or expulsion.
Your similar Alabama school code of student conduct likely addresses academic failure to progress, academic misconduct such as plagiarism, dishonesty, and cheating, and behavioral misconduct involving violence, threats, property theft or damage, gang activity, and possession of drugs, weapons, alcohol, pornography, or tobacco, among other proscribed wrongs. Disciplinary charges of this kind can not only lead to swift school suspension and expulsion but also leave a permanent record interfering with future education and employment. Our attorneys know how to fight disciplinary charges. Don't make the mistake of giving in to false, unfair, or exaggerated charges. Even if you or your student committed some or all of the alleged wrongs, we may be able to make a convincing case for remedial measures in place of punitive sanctions.
Alabama School Bullying & Harassment
Alabama is among the many states that have enacted specific protections against school bullying, hazing, and similar forms of harassment. Alabama Statutes Section 16-28B-4 requires local school districts to prohibit “bullying, intimidation, violence, or threats of violence” on school grounds or off school grounds at school activities. Alabama Statutes Section 16-1-23 similarly prohibits hazing at Alabama schools, defined as an initiation rite into a student organization that “recklessly or intentionally endangers the mental or physical health of any student.” The University of Alabama Code of Student Conduct accordingly prohibits hazing, for one prime example. The Code of Conduct for students at the Birmingham Public Schools another prime example.
Don't let hazing, bullying, or harassment detract from your Alabama education or the education of your Alabama K-12 student. Our attorneys stand ready to deploy the above protective laws to both put a stop to intimidation and to recover monetary damages for any harm, loss, or injury such oppression has caused. We are also available to defend disciplinary charges or address academic progress issues related to bullying, hazing, or other harassment or allegations of such harassment.
Alabama School Discrimination Cases
Unlawful discrimination affecting access to or enjoyment of your Alabama college or university program or your minor student's Alabama K-12 program can be another significant issue that our attorneys are well prepared to address on your behalf. Multiple state and federal laws prohibit various forms of unlawful discrimination at Alabama schools. Title VI of the Federal Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits school discrimination based on race, color, and national origin in schools receiving federal funds. Title IX of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 adds protection against sex discrimination, including sexual assault, sexual harassment, dating violence, and stalking. Alabama Statutes Section 16-1-20.5 adds protection against religious discrimination at Alabama schools. You should find matching anti-discrimination policies in the student conduct code or other policies at your Alabama college or university or your minor student's Alabama K-12 school. For example, see the Title IX policy in the Code of Conduct for students of the Birmingham Public Schools.
Don't take these non-discrimination rights and interests lightly. Discrimination against you or your minor student at an Alabama school can ruin the equal opportunity for valuable education. Our attorneys can help you or your minor student address discrimination issues involving admissions, retention, advancement, graduation, discipline, or school housing, transportation, and other services. Court injunctions and money damages recoveries can be warranted in special cases.
Alabama Student Free Speech Rights
The Supreme Court in Tinker v Des Moines, Morse v Frederick, and other cases has firmly and clearly held that you and your minor student retain First Amendment rights of free speech, association, and expression in Alabama public school programs. The Code of Student Conduct at the University of Alabama, for a prime instance, expressly recognizes that its prohibition on disruptive conduct must not interfere with your First Amendment rights. The University of Alabama's Board of Trustees has also expressly resolved to ensure that school officials protect your free speech rights.
We are available across Alabama to help you or your minor student enforce free speech rights and protections both on campus and in school off-campus programs. We can also help you or your minor student enforce Fourth and Fourteenth Amendment rights to be free from unreasonable search and seizure. These privacy rights may arise in our defense of disciplinary charges involving the discovery of contraband in an unlawful search of a locker, handbag, motor vehicle, dormitory room, or other private place. We can also pursue money damages remedies under 42 USC Section 1983 for constitutional rights violations in appropriate cases.
Alabama School Protective Procedures
Constitutional and statutory due process rights help our attorneys pursue the above rights and remedies promoting your interests or the interests of your minor student in an Alabama education. Alabama has enacted a special K-12 school due process bill that amends Alabama Statutes Section 16-1-14, which already provides procedural protections in discipline cases. Your minor student's Alabama K-12 school officials must provide the statute's promised protections. Your Alabama college or university will have similar due process guarantees that our attorneys can invoke to challenge your school suspension or dismissal or to enforce your other school rights.
Our Role Enforcing Your Education Law Rights
You cannot simply rest on your procedural rights. The officials at your Alabama college or university or your minor student's Alabama K-12 program may not afford those rights and protections without your request and demand that they do so. Our role is to communicate, advocate, and negotiate, strategically and effectively, with school officials for the full enforcement of education rights. We may be able to arrange early conciliation conferences to settle matters voluntarily. If not, we can invoke formal hearing procedures to present witness testimony and other evidence and challenge adverse witnesses through cross-examination. If you have already lost the formal hearing, let us take your available appeals. If you have already lost appeals, let us pursue alternative special relief through your school's general counsel office or other oversight channels.
Premier Alabama Education Law Attorneys
Retain the Lento Law Firm's premier Education Law Team for skilled and experienced help with academic progress issues, misconduct charges, disability rights, discrimination, bullying, harassment, and other education law issues. We represent hundreds of students across Alabama and nationwide. Call 888.535.3686 or use our contact form now for our highly qualified attorney representation.
